Board of Assessors of the Parish v. New York Life Insurance

Citations

• 216 U.S. 517
• 30 S. Ct. 385
• 54 L. Ed. 597
• 1910 U.S. LEXIS 1917

Syllabus

<p>Where a policy-holder simply withdraws a portion of the reserve on his policy for which the life insurance company is bound, and there is no personal liability, it is not a loan or credit on which the company can be taxed as such, and this is not affected by the fact that the policy-holder gives a note on .which interest is necessarily charged to adjust the account.</p> <p>To tax such accounts as credits in a State where the company has made the advances would be to deprive the company of its property without due process of law. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co, v. New Orleans, 205 U. S. 395, distinguished.</p> <p>Even if a State can tax a bank deposit that is created only to leave the State at once, a statute purporting to levy a tax upon all property within the State should not be construed, in the absence of express terms or a direct decision to that effect by the state court, as intending to include such a deposit; and so held as to the statute of Louisiana involved in this case.</p>